Russell Brand explores links between capitalism and addiction on the Trews

For the past 14 years, comedian Russell Brand has been clean.

And to his credit, he visited Vancouver's first legal supervised-injection site, Insite, when he was in the city for a show in 2013.

At the time, he called Insite's cofounder Liz Evans "an inspiration".

Since then, Brand has continued elevating people's understanding of issues relating to addiction, including the economic factors.

It's remarkable how little discussion has revolved around income inequality in all the news about hundreds fentanyl-related deaths in B.C. this year.

Brand, on the other hand, isn't shy about highlighting how capitalism can lead to alienation.

In the video below, he says that this alienation can send some into the throes of addiction to escape feelings of despair and pain.

"The problem is that the conditions that create addiction are getting worse and worse and more and more common," Brand says. "So you're more likely to deal with it."

He also says addiction is the natural outcome of a society rooted in "purchasing, acquiring, and consuming".

If you're interested in learning more about Brand's views, check out the video below:

After watching the video above, ask yourself this question: are B.C. public-health officials doing enough to highlight how provincial fiscal policies may have contributed to some of the hundreds of overdose deaths this year?

The answer: of course not.

But the first public-health doctor on the government payroll who publicly rips into the Christy Clark government's recent tax cut for the rich will likely soon be out of a job. So the issue goes unmentioned on newscasts and talk shows.

In the video, Brand also quotes former Richard Nixon aide John Ehrlichman saying that the war on drugs was created as a political tool to fight black people and hippies.

"We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against war or black...but by getting the public to associate both hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities," Ehrlichman said. "We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."